Pearl Lowe's Vintage Craft

Love Pink

Monday, June 30, 2014

My Blog is now 8 years old - Almost sounds grown-up! ;-))Thank you to all who have visited over the years and extra special thanks to those who find the time to leave a comment or to email their support or friendly wishes.xx

Hubby and I are just back from an absolutely fantastic week away in (sunny!) Edinburgh.I hope to share some photos with you later in the week when I've caught up with everything at home again.Have a lovely week,Niki x

This means that my shop will be closed on Saturday - I am then taking a much needed break and will be closed for the following week, opening again as usual from July 3rd. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The wonderful roses flowering in our garden just now have inspired my latest handmade creations...

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Using a classic c1980's Sanderson furnishing fabric called 'Chelsea', I made a set of 4 cushions.

I used the same fabric front and back...

(and just to put cushion making into perspective, I recycled a full pair of cottage curtains to make these...Lots of fabric!)

All 4 reserved - thank you!

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This is a cushion I made as a 'thank you' for my friend Maggie, using lots of smaller pieces of fabric!

I used a collection of cheerful red rose prints to make the patchwork front.

The reverse was made from salvaged pieces from a quilted bedspread.***

I thought I'd make another one of a similar style for the Textile Fair that I'm attending this Saturday, in Frome.

Lots of pretty pink roses for the summer season.

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Also, just wanted to share this with you - Hubby and I decided to take out a large Bay tree from our garden's border, that had become a bit of a thug. Rather than digging out the multiple trunks, hubby used them as supports for a bird table.

Using bits of salvaged wooden planking, he created the table top and screwed it into the old branches.

An old bird house from elsewhere in the garden was also screwed in place, creating a 'Birdy B&B'!!

Normally I would be very reluctant to part with any of my vintage/antique fabrics that I've collected over the years - They are worth a lot to me as the raw materials for my work.

But as I get a little older, I realise there will never be enough hours in the day for me to make use of all of my textiles...and so I've decided to offer some of them for sale at Frome, in the hope that other crafters or collectors will snap them up and use them in their work instead.

As I priced up the items, I found it quite therapeutic and slowly became more comfortable with the process of letting go...Hopefully there won't be any regrets...

And now I can enjoy the lovely space to work in, using the pieces of fabric I've chosen to keep.

Under the stairs is where I've stored my wares for now...

I have bundles of assorted textiles, such as scraps of Scottish mohair, Welsh Wool plaids, and fragments of antique quilts.

A huge pile of remnants at bargain prices to rummage through.

Pieces of old patchwork and bed covers waiting to be repurposed.

Bundles of ancient French ticking and checks.

Tiny scraps, suitable for patchwork, card making and other small projects have been boxed up ready for the event, to provide inspiration for the visitors.

I have a large collection of my downproof cottons...salvaged from damaged vintage eiderdowns many years ago. The result of many an unpicking evening sat with quick-unpick in hand and the 'not fun' final stage of emptying the handfuls of feather from inside!

A large pile of French art nouveau fabric panels of usable lengths.

And a variety of other fabrics...Some large...And some smaller...

Lots to chose from and priced from £1.50 to £5.

If you are a maker, collector or an artist looking for inspiration, with 33 stall holders, it promises to be a fabulous event.